@Ray Dyal

The tracks you can’t get enough of lately, all in one place. Updated as you listen.

The songs you love. The more you use Apple Music, the better the mix. Refreshed every Tuesday.

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Country music busted out into a multitude of directions in the ’80s, developing a higher profile than ever before in the process. Hitmaking crossover queens The Judds and K.T. Oslin were edging further into pop turf, while rough-hewn mavericks like Steve Earle laid the groundwork for the rockin’ sound of alt-country, and back-to-basics New Traditionalists such as Randy Travis and George Strait brought about a return to the music’s roots. Rising stars Alabama and Eddie Rabbitt were breaking through to the pop mainstream and putting new faces on the Nashville scene with hook-heavy good-time grooves. At the same time, the ’80s saw such legends as George Jones, Dolly Parton, and Willie Nelson flexing their musical muscles and finding new ways for their sound to fit into the ever-evolving country continuum. And the entrance of Lionel Richie and Julio Iglesias onto the country charts underlined the scene’s constant state of redefinition.

Face the wall and get your boots scootin’.

The Rock-Ola Model A jukebox was introduced in 1935. In the years since, country music has reinvented itself again and again, but no matter what changes, its singers have remained enthralled with the almost mystical power of the device: its ability to say the words you want to say and play the song you want to hear—or, in some cases, the one you don’t. Moe Bandy may have said it best: “So many disappointments, that’s what makes the jukebox play.” This playlist is loaded with honky-tonk stars like Bandy, such as Johnny Paycheck, packing all the drama of a full dime novel into a three-minute song, and George Jones, singing with a voice that could cut through the din of even the most crowded bar. Cue up some country classics, hear the steel guitar wail, and let the good—or bad—times roll.

Country rock was the fruitful collision of two styles with more in common than many realized. It truly took off in the '60s, when L.A. bands like The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers started working some serious twang into their Sunset Strip sound. In the '70s, country rock graduated from a countercultural phenomenon into the mainstream when tunes like the Eagles' "Peaceful Easy Feeling" became ubiquitous. And in the '80s, songs like Steve Earle's rugged troubadour anthem "Guitar Town" set the stage for a new generation of rootsy alt-country heroes.